AlHijjah 21, 1433, Nov 6, 2012, SPA -- The 2012 Saudi International Conference on Space and Aviation Technology, which was hosted by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), concluded here today. The third and last session, titled "Space Operations and Science", was co-chaired by Prince Dr. Turki bin Saud bin Mohammed, Vice President of KACST for Research Institutes, and Alexander Alexandrov, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Space Agency. A number of female and male astronauts from different parts of the world took part in the session. Participants in the session underscored the importance of collective work and joint cooperation in space programs as well as recruiting young skillful astronauts from all countries of the world to achieve concerted sustainable progress in this field. In recommendations at the end of the meeting, they also stressed the importance of referring to former experiences accumulating over the last 50 years in the field of space and availing the opportunity of the historical human landing on the surface of Mars. Alexandrov spoke about the future of Russian space industry, including the country's space programs and cooperation with other countries. He highlighted the importance of cooperation with NASA to score new discoveries of the solar system and to reach the most-far stars and unveil other mysteries of the planet. --More
